Hello everyone! Summer is closing in and school is ending, so what better way to celebrate this is a fun visit to the beach, and maybe a little building!

This month's build contest are BEACHES!
Fun in the sun, white sand, waving waves type of beaches is what we're looking for! Beached shipwrecks, rockin' beach party, giant waves, and anything you can imagine at a beach!

Enter and you will win some magnificent prizes! Who doesn't like prizes? Everyone has a chance to get their hands on these when entered!

Prizes:Third place: 1 extra map and $10 to spend in the Brawl store.Second place:2 extra maps and $15 to spend in the Brawl store.First place:3 extra maps and $20 to spend in the Brawl store along with a special build contest winner medal!

Connect to MinecraftBuild.com and type /create to make a map, then get building! If you've used up all your maps, feel free to ask me and I'll give you member perms on a flat map.

Once you’re done, head over to theBuild Showcases subforum and post a thread using the application form below. Make sure to change your prefix to "Contest Entry"!

- You may work in a team of up to a maximum of 3 players, including you. Prizes will be split as equally as possible between teammates. Please also keep in mind that only the builders you mentioned in your application will receive a prize if your build is part of the top 3.

Plagiarism is not allowed; including copying other players’ builds from other worlds with WorldEdit.

Do not build anything that would be considered inappropriate or vulgar.

You may copy old creations that you built previously. Keep in mind that anyone who helped out with them will only receive a prize if they are mentioned in your application.

All entries must be submitted HERE before the deadline. Please see the timezone converter to find out when the deadline is for you. All entries will be judged after the deadline. Winners will be announced a few days after the deadline.

Here is where all the contestants will be listed. Once you submit your build for the contest, your map id and creator(s) name will be listed here. Feel free to visit other maps but make sure to leave if they ask you to do so. Report any signs of plagiarism to a staff member.

We added a way for everyone to contribute together to achieve a community goal on our shop. When all players together contributed $50 to the goal, all boosters will be activated across the servers for 1 hour!

Simply click "Contribute"
​

When you contribute to the goal the progress bar will rise. Every contribution gets a global message in-game. Upon the goal being reached, it will announce and all boosters will magically be active. The store goal will then reset for the opportunity to activate another.

We have a few announcements in this post. Make sure you read them all for all the information.

VPN Block Added​

What is it?
For those who don't know, a VPN is a way to add a middleman between your internet and what you are connecting to. While they provide the advantage of privacy and security, it allows people to bypass their bans because it adds a layer of anonymity.

But...
We realize that a lot of our community uses VPNs in a non-malicious way to protect their IP addresses. Because of this, I would like to stress that we are going to work with you to figure out the best solution.

We already provide services such as TeamSpeak, a community Discord, and forums so you can safety communicate with players without using peer-to-peer programs like Skype. However, if you still need to use a VPN you may apply for a whitelist here.

Why?
The block will help limit the amount of players that are able to circumvent their bans. This is important because tracking down these players right now absorbs a lot of staff time.

The block is currently active (after a reboot later today).
Let us know if any problems arise.​

Ban Wipe Impending​

With the new VPN block being added, we have also decided to reset all bans. This includes mutes, tempbans, warnings, and the history of them happening. Before you freak out, let us explain our reasoning.

We have been using the same ban list for almost four years now. While many legitimate bans have been made, there are a lot of just old, invalid, or improper bans. Such as, we have hundreds of accounts permanently banned for advertising and thousands for being compromised.

A clean wipe will allow everyone to have a clean past and a (hopefully) clean future. It is concerning letting some players on, but it would be impossible to evaluate every player and their bans individually. It is the ultimate all or nothing final chance for players who have previously been banned.

Likewise, the system for getting re-banned after the wipe will remain the same as it is now. Nothing special with us looking up a player's old history and banning them according. Just follow the game rules to stay pardoned. Staff will have a private way to view your old history just in-case we need to, but we won't be enforcing off of that.

To the banned players: Abide the rules and remember not to play or be associated with cheaters and you will have a successful Brawl future.

To the unbanned players: If you are banned from the time of this post to June 23rd, we will be manually checking whether or not your ban should stay after the wipe. Just because we're wiping doesn't mean you can hack right now.

We will be rebooting the network tonight around midnight CST in order to reset the ban/mute list. Shortly after, we will begin resetting WarZ. We are only expecting the network downtime to be 15 minutes and WarZ to be 30 minutes (if everything goes smoothly).

Hello Brawlers! As you know we just reset WarZ and our ban list. We wanted to release some minor updates during this period to hopefully make WarZ more enjoyable. Not everything in this list is final, and we'll be monitoring WarZ over the next few weeks to see how things are going. Onto the change log!

Grapples are back! We decided to add grapples back to WarZ while still keeping ladders. Grapples now have a 80% chance of working but have a 5 second cooldown on them. This will allow grapples to still be in the game without being too OP

We have slightly nerfed the spawn rate of diamond armor and tier 4 guns both with and without the rare loot booster. We feel WarZ was most fun back when you had something to lose, back when you had something to fight for. This change will hopefully bring back the competitive feeling WarZ once had instead of everyone running around with full diamond 24/7. The spawn rates are subject to change overtime

PvP Loggers now show player skins and will soon show the armor and item the player had when they logged out. For example, if you log out in full diamond your PvP Logger will have full diamond on with your skin as well.

Click to expand...

Continuous Rule Violations Change
A new change has come to Brawl's continuous rule violations policy that came into effect last October! The number of punishments within one 8 month period required for a permanent ban is now 30 instead of the previous 40. Given the recent ban reset, this could not have come at a better time! We hope that this will provide more of an incentive to follow the server rules and help provide an even friendlier atmosphere for our players to enjoy.

Featured Brawler
What do you think about when you hear the word Lego? A building? A car? A boat? Nahh. You think of guns of course! And who better to make Lego guns than this cool dude? His builds are absolutely flawless, and he makes about any gun you can think of... from SCRATCH. This guy isn’t only good at building Legos, but he is a rock solid War Community member. Who are we talking about? @CAShep! You can find his YouTube Channel here. Be sure to give him a pat on the back and two thumbs up for all those awesome builds!

Trivia QuestionLast month's question was: Who is the creator of a CTF map set deep in space atop a golden spaceship?
The answer was Saixos (the map referenced is Xerioth Station.) @SoCool21 answered it first and earned a forums trophy!

This month's question is: Which three players first applied/were accepted for staff on HG, CTF, and Build following the Brawl-McPvP merge?
The answer will be revealed along with the winner in the next edition of The Brawl News.

Group Advertisement
When a new CTF Team is upcoming and Pending, they’re always looking for new members. This CTF Team is a ragtag team of elite veteran players who combine skill and teamwork to win their matches! Been wanting to join a CTF Team? The Redd Foxes are the team for you! You can find their Team Thread here. Apply for Mercenary or Member today!

Summary: Andreas Troggo, with the aid of the renowned geophysicist (and irrepressible talker) Dr. Jacob Chaos, Christian fundamentalist & Lieutenant Cameron Beam, and a bloke named Tom, tackles the most dire and pressing of mysteries that come before him. In this episode, Troggo and his companions take on the greatest mysteries of all - the murder of the Hardcore Games - the Dead Server. You'll be on the edge of your seat as the four take on lag, empty server lobbies, and incredibly bad game design in a pulse pounding search for the truth

why did HG die?

Let us begin...

Inspector Andreas Troggo, of brawlville.slack.com opened his Minecraft launcher and punched in the code. The login, taking forever as it usually did, went through, much to Troggo's relief. The real test, however, would come when he opened the server list. Lately, Troggo had had some trouble connecting to the server. The server, of course, pertained to Brawl as that was where he was employed. Whatever went on in its domain was his buisness, most of it that is, and he logged in daily to ensure that things were kept in due order. After all, on a server that catered primarily to young adolescents, chaos was bound to break out especially if only the junior staff were around.

Troggo was fortunate. Within seconds he was online and in the Brawl lobby. The lobby was an enormous place, and a rather extravagant one to boot. No expense was spared furnishing it. Massive stone columns lined both sides of the lobby, with an impressive (not to mention lag inducing) spire of multicolored bullsh*t at the head, towering over the columns like a giant over a dwarf. In each of the columns was a swirling purple essence called a portal. The portal would take one wherever they would, as each portal was directed to a specific server. Troggo being thorough, as was his nature, always checked every portal. It was part of his job.

But what portal to check first? Troggo glanced about him before he made his decision. Today he would start with a different server than usual. A much different server than usual. Today, Troggo would begin with the Hardcore Games. Troggo barely took a step towards the portal before he was hit with a barrage of messages, threats, and friend requests from people he'd never heard of including a certain joeymast99 who was upset that he'd denied itzYaBoiDRONE's jmod app.

This sudden onset of junk would have overwhelmed the inexperienced staff member. But Troggo had been around for some time and had gotten used to it by now. It was another part of the daily grind. Complaints, threats, and random friend requests from tryhards and hackers, yes he'd seen it all. Troggo glanced irritably at the screen as he repeatedly typed /ignore /kick and /ban into the chat. What a nuisance, he thought.

Several minutes and a few drinks later Troggo banned his last philistine (an alt of the legend Onise) and got on with his rounds. His pixelated character entered the HG portal and Troggo kicked back and waited for his 'economy internet' to load yet another lobby.

"Yes I do sir." Lieutenant Beam, the officer on call, said "No one plays on this server anymore. It's dead. I'm as sure of it as I am my faith in Jesus."

Troggo shook his head. He couldn't believe it. Yet here he was, standing in the middle of HG's lobby with no players online. No one online other than him and Lieutenant Beam. Not even in the surrounding woodlands. How was this possible? he thought, worriedly. He hadn't been on HG in some time but he hadn't expected this. Surely it couldn't have died that quickly...

"How long has it been dead?" he asked, reaching into his overcoat for his notepad and pen. Every detail, every word, must be recorded.

"Since man killed off the Dinosaurs." Lieutenant Beam said solemnly.

Troggo sighed in annoyance, not more of this religious stuff. "Come on Cameron. When was the last time you saw someone online?"

Lieutenant Beam frowned and thought on this. After a minute of silence he replied, "I saw Dave and Sam on a few hours ago."

Troggo scribbled this on his notepad and pressed on, "Do you know what they were doing?"

"Yes."

"What were they doing?"

"They were playing HG."

"With only two players?"

Lieutenant Beam shook his head, "There were others." he said softly, "I didn't recognize them. But God did. He has True Vision."

"I see..." Troggo said, writing that down too - except the bit about God and 'True Vision' - and continued. "How many people were online at that time, when the game was going on?"

"Six." Lieutenant Beam said, "There were six of them."

Troggo smiled at this. Six players. Easy enough to track down. But who left last? That was the pivotal question. Who killed off HG? With that question answered, he would have his culprit and the case closed.

"Do you remember who was last online?" he asked.

"Jesus." Lieutenant Beam said simply.

"Cameron..."

"He is everywhere"

"I know He is, but He's not on Brawl." Troggo said, fighting to keep the impatience out of his tone, "And, according to the logs," he pulled out a weathered 3-ring binder known as The Log, "Jesus was not here."

"But He is here." Lieutenant Beam said, with such conviction that made Troggo feel not a little unnerved, "Even now... our Savior awaits."

"Cameron, this is an investigation" Troggo reminded him, "and in investigations I need hard facts. Evidence. Times. Places. Locations. Jesus may be here in spirit but not in person. And I need to know who was here last, before HG died. Can you tell me?"

Lieutenant Beam shook his head and, to Troggo's great relief, spared him the sermon "No, I can't."

"Thank you Lieutenant." Troggo said, tipping his hat. And with that he re-entered the portal and left the server, leaving Beam to his own devices.

...

"It says here that you two," Troggo said, frowning at the teenage boys lollygagging on the couch in front of him, "were the last online. Can you confirm that?"

The first boy, a bright, brown eyed youth with a mess of brown hair named Matt Versions threw back his head and laughed, "Me? On HG? Why would I play on a dead server? XDDDD"

"Yeah, why would we play on DeadServer? lol XD XD" his friend and full time troll Dave Thompson said, joining in the mirth.

"XD"

"XDDDDDD"

"Shut up Dave." one of the secret eu players said.

"Agreed!" said many of those in attendance.

Dave opened his mouth to say something but thought better of it. A tall, brown haired figure with a tired face and absolutely no personality had already volunteered to speak for him,

"secreteuplayerv1, your message (Shut up Dave) violates our server rules. Your comment contains inappropriate language for our members. Please keep in mind that people of all ages visit our community, and we want them to have a pleasant environment when meme'ing. Your message may have been removed or altered.

Your account's access may be limited based on these actions. Please keep this in mind when posting or using our site. You can access our forum’s rules here.

Thanks,

Chief Inspector Roke
Brawl Staff Team"

and with that Roke was gone as quickly as he came, his black trench-coat causing a slight breeze in his wake.

"Haha, rekt." Dave said to secreteuplayerv1, once Roke was out of earshot. "I told you HG was a dead server!"

"Hey Dave."

"Hey Matt."

"HG should get updated." Matt said.

Dave smirked at this, "Ya it should, if there was anything to update XD"

"You know why there's nothing to update?" Matt asked.

"Because it's dead."

"I know."

"XD"

"XDDDDDDDD"

The boy to Dave's right, a certain Sam McHugh, was immediately triggered by this and flew into a rage. "HG is NOT dead!" he screamed, "I'm SICK AND TIRED of you calling it dead! Dead this, dead that! All you do is make stupid memes about HG AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!"

and with that Sam, his face red and his blue eyes burning like hellfire, launched himself at Dave in an attempt to throttle him

"HG. IS. NOT. DEAD!" he screamed as he grabbed Dave's shoulders and shook him violently

Dave cried out and three junior officers closed in on the pair and dragged Sam, still kicking and screaming, off of Dave and out of the room. As the doors closed Sam could be heard to say,

"There were twenty players online earlier today!"

This claim caused much murmuring among the group. It especially piqued the curiosity of Calvin Munson, a thin, older bloke with shaggy blond hair and a reputation as a humorist a straight talker. "Is that true? Were there really twenty people online on HG?" he asked, turning to Troggo.

Troggo glanced at the logs and nodded, "Yes, for five minutes."

Munson chuckled at this, "Yeah that sounds about right."

Troggo frowned. Why did that sound 'about right'? He knew Munson was joking, as he had a tendency to do, but his remark was clearly angled towards sarcasm rather than hyperbole. And as Troggo knew from his many years of socializing, hyperbole exaggerated the truth, sarcasm made fun of it. Had HG been in trouble for some time? He'd been so sure everything was fine, up until recently that is. But now doubt was creeping into his mind. A dead server was lying on the landscape of Brawl and he had ignored the warning signs. The low player-count, the memes, the lack of forums posts. Troggo sighed in anguish I should have been watching more carefully...

But someone was responsible for its death. And they would be brought to justice

Articles written by @randomcitizen1, @Viva, @DarkTitan_, and @MattM1PVPBuilder of the Month
Who's this month's featured builder? None other than the famous @patrickdemooij9! You might recognize this fellow for being a legendary map creator for our beloved McWar server! His latest COD remake map looks just as fantastic as ever. His attention to detail is out of this world, but don't take our word for it. Go take a look for yourself! Head on over to Minecraft Build and type /map 383169 in the chat and immerse yourself in this epic map!

Comment Giveaway
Every edition of Brawl News now comes with the chance to win a month of global ELITE. To enter, just leave any kind of comment below. The winner will be announced in next month's edition.